One of the most difficult changes after having kids is coming to terms with having less free time. This is true every day of the week, but once you get daycare figured out you still get a solid chunk of time every weekday to use at your discretion. Most people use this time to work a full-time job. However, weekends are a different story. During the weekend you have no daycare, so the parents become full-time parents[^1]. This was _very hard_ to come to terms with. Weekends used to be downtime. Read, go for walks, hang out with friends, check out that new coffee shop. and other high-relaxation activities. But with kids, at least very young kids, you get none of that[^2]. However, there's more time in the weekend than I initially thought. It's just a matter of making good use of it. Here's an example what time is vailable in my own situation. - From when i wake up until the kids wake up (~1-2hr) - While he drinks milk (~10-20m) - During whatever car ride to and from, ex: zoo (~20-60m) - Lunch (10-20m) - Nap time (~2hr) - Dinner time (~30m) - Evening babysitter (~1-3hr) - This is variable not bacause the babysitter is variable but because I still play with the kids _even while the babysitter is there_ due to a sense that I won't regret that time spent later. All told I estimate that's about 5hrs - 8hrs of time. Consider that! That's a helluva lot of time to get things done. Don't underestimate it. Don't think of weekends as productivity wastelands. Harness what you can, then find more. Of course, there are other activities that cut into that time such as eating, showing, morning routine, etc. Even so, conservatively I'd wager there are at least 3 hours of time that can be harnessed for productive purposes on weekend days, likely more. Get to it. [^1]: There's lots of variation here. In some families one of two parents takes the kids on the weekend, or they trade off, or the grandparents pick up the slack. However, my this is not my situation. [^2]: I do have a regular babysitter every weekend, which provides some discretionary time, but only in the evenings. ---